Asus' 18.4-inch PC-turned-gigantic-tablet will finally launch in Q2 of 2013.

The Asus Transformer AiO P1801, a dual-booting touchscreen all-in-one we first saw at Computex back in June and again at CES this year, has finally got a price and a release window. Engadget reports that the computer will start at $1,299 when it launches in the second quarter of this year.

While Asus has typically saved its Transformer moniker for tablets that connect to keyboard docks to become laptops, the Transformer AiO is a bit different. When the 18.4-inch 1080p touchscreen is in the stand, the computer is a Windows 8 PC, complete with dual- and quad-core Ivy Bridge CPUs, 4GB or 8GB of RAM, a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 730M with 2GB of graphics RAM, and up to 2TB of hard drive space. Remove the display from the stand and you've got what is essentially a gigantic Android 4.1 tablet that uses an Nvidia Tegra 3 SoC, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage. The tablet can operate completely independently of the desktop, but it will also include a remote desktop application (accessed by pressing a blue button on the side of the tablet) that allows for untethered access to all the Windows 8 files and applications.

Enlarge/ The Transformer AiO's stand is a complete Windows 8 desktop, while the display is a complete Android 4.1 tablet.

While Windows 8 itself already promises both a desktop and tablet experience, the seams between the operating system's desktop mode and tablet mode are a bit too visible for some, and there's no denying that Google Play is better stocked than the Windows Store at this point. Asus is offering the best of both ecosystems in a computer with many of the same benefits of convertible Windows 8 all-in-ones like Sony's Tap 20 or Lenovo's IdeaCentre Horizon. We'll evaluate whether the addition of a second operating system adds to or detracts from the experience in our full review.

I'm confused. How do you access the Windows side? Is Android running on top of Windows and you press the Blue button? Or is a native restart-to-enter-either-side thing?

It sounds like it's basically an internal KVM when you connect or disconnect the stand. The blue button is just a shortcut to start an RDP session to the windows side that's still running (or possibly awoken from hibernate, to save battery).

Meh. Give me an x86 tablet in the 10" range that dual-boots Windows 8 and Android and I might consider it. Although some people might find this format appealing, I despise these all-in-ones even more than pre-assembled desktop systems. For me personally, the only possible choice is between tablet/laptop or self-assembled desktop.

Any word on how they plan to unify file management, so when you take the tablet off its stand and leave the house, you can still access your Windows files? It's an interesting idea, making a tablet that can dock into a Windows workstation. But you don't want two independent machines, you want them to communicate and share files, and the only option looks like cloud. Not very elegant.

Not something I'd buy at that price and I don't like prebuild PCs other than laptops/tablets where I don't really have a choice to build myself, but I like the fact that ASUS keeps coming up with some cool ideas to differetiate themselves from other PC/laptop/tablet manufacturers. I'm still really interested in their Fonpad thing that will be an Android phone that slides into a tablet screen, but sadly it doesn't sound like that will make it to the states.

Any word on how they plan to unify file management, so when you take the tablet off its stand and leave the house, you can still access your Windows files? It's an interesting idea, making a tablet that can dock into a Windows workstation. But you don't want two independent machines, you want them to communicate and share files, and the only option looks like cloud. Not very elegant.

The stand's 1TB/2TB of storage and the tablet's 32GB are separate, and I'm not sure whether there's a way to access files other than the remote desktop function that the tablet offers. Keep these questions coming, though, and we'll try to address them all in our review.

So, if I understand this, the stand is the Windows PC hardware, and the screen is the Tegra hardware?

Now I can lose my monitor? It's a feature!

That's actually a slightly amusing point. I wonder if you can buy a new "tablet-screen" for the desktop portion if you drop/break (or lose) the one it comes with? ... or maybe the desktop part has video out ports or something..

Any word on how they plan to unify file management, so when you take the tablet off its stand and leave the house, you can still access your Windows files? It's an interesting idea, making a tablet that can dock into a Windows workstation. But you don't want two independent machines, you want them to communicate and share files, and the only option looks like cloud. Not very elegant.

The stand's 1TB/2TB of storage and the tablet's 32GB are separate, and I'm not sure whether there's a way to access files other than the remote desktop function that the tablet offers. Keep these questions coming, though, and we'll try to address them all in our review.

Wouldn't this be easily managed via SkyDrive (both the Win8 and Android app)?

I simply haven't been able to wrap my mind around the price of these units and who they think is going to buy them. For $1300, you could buy a real Win8 laptop like the one Asus has for $550 with a full-size 15.6" screen, and a Nexus 7 ($250), and pocket the rest of the money. I can't understand who the person is that these companies are targeting with the $1300 price point. Anyone with money to burn like that would buy an Apple device.

Like many, I find this rather intriguing. One of the big problems I've always had with my tablet (HP Touchpad) is getting access to my video files while I'm lying around. Since the button can access the main dock and full win8 system, a simple SMB drive mapping to the movie server (10+GB NAS) means this could connect easily into it.

Right now, if I want to view the movies I Splashtop into my HTPC, or my Laptop depending on what I need to do. That actually works rather well and can easily control my Win7 machines remotely.

The downside of it from what I see is sheer size. If they made this in a 11-13" size I would VERY interested.

Surely in an 18 inch tablet you could fit an i86 processor in there so you wouldn't have to boot into Android. This really seems like a bad compromise.

If they could have it run Win 8 on both and seamlessly switch from running on the powerful hardware in the stand to a more low power alternative when you pick up the monitor then it would be an excellent idea and I'd probably seriously consider it.

To bizarrely have to switch to Android when you want to use it as a tablet makes no sense.

I find the concept interesting, honestly. It would be really nice if they made it universal (at least with Asus tablets), and had some user account info on the tablet applicable to the stand, that would be nice.

Have a guest PC in the guest room, connected to keyboard/mouse/monitor, configured for some limited access. Your guests can drop in a tablet, and use a Windows guest account with their own bookmarks and such for websurfing or whatever. Similar for schools, businesses without assigned desks, etc.

However, people on Ars tend to like to make snap judgements, like the Asus Transformer lapdocks. People at work didn't like the idea until they used mine; now they're all over the place because it's a useful capability.

MartinHatch wrote:

Surely you'd just get a Windows 8 Pro tablet with an external monitor?? (then at least when you are "docked" you get 2 screens?)

You can dock an Android tablet with an external screen and, when docked, have 2 screens.

Surely in an 18 inch tablet you could fit an i86 processor in there so you wouldn't have to boot into Android. This really seems like a bad compromise.

If they could have it run Win 8 on both and seamlessly switch from running on the powerful hardware in the stand to a more low power alternative when you pick up the monitor then it would be an excellent idea and I'd probably seriously consider it.

To bizarrely have to switch to Android when you want to use it as a tablet makes no sense.

True enough. Or, since WinRT is running on ARM, it would be trivial enough to port it over to a Tegra-specific setup.